Agents of Oblivion Branches Question

[richkz]

So, I'm trying to set up Agents of Oblivion for Hero Lab, and I have reached the point of adding the branches (Assault, Occult, and Operations. I set up a group for each, and there are certain edges available to each branch. So far, so good. The problem starts when a player is allowed to change branches. Any edges with a pickreq of Assault Branch, now throw an error when the player changes to Occult, etc. Is there a better place to set up the prereq, instead of as a pick-req, so that it is only checked when the choice is made, not each time the character changes something?

<![CDATA[#trait[attrAgi] >= 5]]></exprreq>
</thing>
<thing id="grpAOOAsBr" name="Assault Branch" description="benefit: agents in assault receive Combat Immersion Training. This allows them to select any combat edge, they may normally qualify for, during the pre-mission phase." compset="Group" summary="Assault Branch" uniqueness="unique">
<usesource source="AOO"/>
</thing>
<thing id="setAOOGrp" name="Groups" compset="SetAdjust" summary="Group use">
<fieldval field="setGrpTerm" value="Branches"/>
<usesource source="AOO"/>
<tag group="Hero" tag="GroupUse"/>


<![CDATA[#traitfound[skFighting] >= 4]]></exprreq>
</thing>
<thing id="edgAOODem" name="Demolisher" compset="Edge" summary="Demolisher">
<usesource source="AOO"/>
<tag group="MinRank" tag="0"/>
<tag group="EdgeType" tag="Profession"/>
<pickreq thing="grpAOOAsBr" onlyonce="yes"/>
<exprreq message="Demolitions D8 required">

Thanks

[SeeleyOne]

Yeah, changing your Group after a character has been made does not work.

A better way would be to have either unique Edges that have a cost of 0 (you put that in the cost field). I have done things like that before. So a player picks one at creation. I have tried a couple of different ways to remind players to take one at creation. Now that the Rewards can be unique that is the best way, where you could have the branch Edge have its requirements, which the reward adds to the character for you.

[zarlor]

Agreed that if a group is something that can be changed that would provide things you get to take with you when you change groups that it's probably not the best way to go. However, if the issue is only that something like an Edge which is otherwise chosen just has a pre-req of being in a particular group which might change later then it may be just as useful to not use a Group as a pre-req for that Edge but list it as a "NOTE:" or something at the top of the Edge description. There MIGHT be a way to force a pre-req at Character Creation only through the use of Tags, though. I can take a look at that and get back to you, however you'd still want to put those notes into the appropriate Edges since you'd still probably want to see them after Character Creation anyway.

[zarlor]

BTW, for something that only happens at Character Creation you can check the Common Code examples, just search there for "character creation" to isolate the specific code snippets, mostly it's just setting an check in each Edge this would apply to for "if (hero.tagis[mode.creation] = 1) then" that way it only checks if the mode.creation tag is set, otherwise it would just ignore whatever is in the if/endif check.

[SeeleyOne]

I use Group to show if a character is an Extra, a Competent Extra (an Extra that has a Wild Die), or a Wild Card. I do not change the status in the Configure Hero. As far as it is concerned they are all Wild Cards. But the handful of edges that DO care, I just made up a requirement that determines it for us.

The group also adds on the free skills if that is an optional rule that is selected. My table likes to give several skills at d4, offhand some of them are Fighting, Healing, Notice, Climbing, Stealth, Persuasion, Streetwise, Intimidation, Taunt, and some others. They are the things that a player will want to do at least sometimes and I did not want them to have to have a d4-2.

It is catastrophic to change the group when using the "free skills" optional rule, as you just pulled all of those skills off and they are reset to no points put in. I have two versions of each, one with the free skills and one without.

There is something that has become more and more common at my table. I allow for an Extra to become a Competent Extra, and a Competent Extra to become a Wild Card. It changes the name that displays. I made up a 4-edge cost Edge called "Become a Competent Extra" for the Extra, and now the character is a Competent Extra and I did not have to change the group. For a competent Extra to become a wild card they have to buy three Wounds (half-cost edges) and a benny (an edge), and their second benny makes them a full wild card. They have the option to buy the third (for an edge. I would do it). But once they get the second benny they are now a full-fledged Wild Card.

This is how I handle my Groups. I use Factions for the different Arcane Backgrounds, which only pops up as an option once you get the generic "Arcane Background" edge. Things that need to point to "any arcane background" just point to that. Things that apply to mages look for my "facM?" and it looks for any that follow those first few letters. This way I do not have to update Wizard to point to each and every one for each and every setting. I hate making copies of edges and data just because one book has it and another book also has it. I only need one version to work for both.